The Chattanooga Lookouts couldn’t touch Cristhian Martinez in the first five innings, and by the time they actually got a couple of hits, it was going to take about a dozen to get back in the game.
Martinez pitched seven scoreless innings and the Jacksonville Suns rolled to a 9-0 win Saturday night in front of 4,103 at AT&T Field.
Lucas May finally broke up the no-hitter leading off the bottom of the sixth, only to be thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double. May had two of the Lookouts’ four hits in the game.
Martinez walked the next batter, but the inning ended with a double play. Covering first, Martinez made a good lunging grab to complete the play. It was that kind of night for the Lookouts (12-18) and for Martinez, who drove in two runs with a single in the fourth.
“He didn’t really throw his fastball for strikes, but he was able to, behind in the count, throw his slider and his changeup,” Lookouts manager John Valentin said. “Obviously, we were not picking up the ball very well.”
In six starts this season, all of them at least 5 1/3 innings, Martinez hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs. The closest the Lookouts got to scoring on him was in the seventh, when Andrew Lambo and Jamie Hoffman singled and Josh Bell’s line drive to left was dropped by Tim Torres. But Torres was able to fire the ball to Lee Mitchell at third for the force-out.
Martinez then struck out Gabriel Martinez to end the inning. Martinez allowed three hits, struck out six and walked three.
Lookouts starter James Adkins ran into trouble in the fourth. Facing the Knoxville native and former University of Tennessee standout, Suns catcher Brad Davis brought in a run with a slow grounder and Martinez drove in two with a single up the middle, giving the Suns (16-14) a 3-0 lead.
Adkins walked Chris De La Cruz and Lee Mitchell to lead off the fifth. Two batters later, Kevin Randel drove in De La Cruz with a sharp grounder up the first base line. First baseman Russ Mitchell tagged first and tried to get De La Cruz at home but couldn’t get the ball there in time, allowing the Suns to go up 4-0.
Adkins was pulled after 4 2/3 innings. His stats followed a certain pattern: four hits, four runs (all earned), four walks and four strikeouts.
Martinez got the Suns shining again in the sixth with a two-out walk off reliever Travis Schlichting, who then walked Bryan Peterson and allowed De La Cruz to reach with a throwing error. With the bases loaded, Lee Mitchell blasted a grand slam to right to make it 8-0.
“I got a fastball and I got the barrel on it,” Lee Mitchell said.
The Lookouts are off today. Jesus Castillo (0-3, 6.84 ERA) is scheduled to start Monday’s 8 p.m. EDT game at Huntsville. Jeremy Jeffress (1-1, 5.06 ERA) is slated to pitch for the Stars.
